"Kill Them All and Let God Sort Them Out Later"
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There are two kinds of toxicity brewing in the city work environment. They are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from each other and are contributing to the lack of successorship and stakeholdership within the workforce infrastructure. They are due to a lack of critical thinking and an overabundance of self interest that individuals on both sides of this spectrum have. They are certainly not a balanced perspective and are not holistic or transcendent enough to generate a genuine synthesis of ideas that would be best for the common good.
On the one hand you have Ted Noftall’s mentality which is the kill them all and let God sort them out later mentality. It would appear to some that he would like to turn every city employee into an indentured servant or a private sector employee that works for a southern plantation owner with little or no incentive to become a career public servant. In his quest to expose the improprieties of the mayor and his handpicked city manager, Ted does not care how much collateral damage he does or how many valuable people that are innocent are hurt. He seems to use people opportunistically when it suits his purpose and hang the same people out to dry who at one time have supported him.
On the other hand you have the Kisela mentality, which is to bring in your hordes of pension padding I.C.M.A. managers, establish a management click and mutual admiration society of but kissing yes men who will take bows for mediocrity. obfuscate incompetence, and suppress free thought and communication. Under Kisela’s program value is not rewarded and transparency is punished, while team playing obfuscation and suppression of free thought is rewarded. This is a contributing factor to the brain drain within the organization and the steady decline in the employee climate. This also is counter-productive to the holistic solution and resolution of the major challenges and problems that plague this organization. The butt kissers will catch a falling knife and fiddle while Rome is burning, all the time taking bows for failures that are covered up and spun as successes. They will suppress and punish anyone in the work force who tries to point things out that need to be fixed that contradicts the misinformation that upper management daily feeds to the city council.
Ted Noftall’s apparent inability to realize that there are many honest, valuable, and hard working employees within the city that need to be embraced, encouraged, and rewarded for their value does just as much damage and contributes to the exodus of institutional knowledge as Kisela’s suppression does..
Noftall’s quest for transparency and accountability is admirable and many employees and others such as Mr. Woodman recognize him for it. The one thing that Mr. Noftall seems to be lacking is the ability to acknowledge and reward the positive in the workforce as well as the negative. If he would only cultivate a balanced perspective and recognize that most employees do not like corruption and incompetence he would receive much more support in much of the good he does.
Ted please don’t kill them all and let God sort them out later. Instead take the fish and pick off the good meat and throw away the bones. Recognize the good in others as well as the bad, and be willing to reward the value that stands after you root out the corruption. I think most employees will concur with you that the Kisela program is doomed to failure, but in all fairness you must admit that your program needs some renovation and the application of critical thinking if it is to be embraced by all those affected.